d Margaret, "or reason, or philosophy,
whichever name you may call your faith by, but to show us the bright
side of everything--of death among the rest? I have often wondered why
we seem to try to make the most of that evil (if evil it be), while we
think it a duty to make the least of every other. I had some such
feeling, I suppose, when I was surprised to hear that you had come
hither straight from a deathbed: I do not wonder at all now."

"Mr Smithson will not be much missed," observed Sophia, who felt
herself relieved from the solemnity of the occasion, by what had passed,
and at liberty to speak of him as freely as if he was no nearer death
than ever. "He has never been a sociable neighbour. I always thought
him an odd old man, from the earliest time I can remember."

"Some few will miss him," said Mr Hope. "He is a simple-hearted, shy
man, who never did himself justice, except with two or three who saw
most of him. Their affection has been enough for him--enough to make
him think now that his life has been a very happy one. There!" cried
Hope, as a lark sprang up almost from under the feet of the
party--"There is another member of Deerbrook society, ladies, who is
anxious to make your acquaintance." There were two or three larks
hovering above the meadow at this moment, and others were soaring
further off. The air was full of lark music. The party stood still and
listened. Looking up into the sunny sky, they watched one little
warbler, wheeling round, falling, rising again, still warbling, till it
seemed as if it could never be exhausted. Sophia said it made her head
ache to look up so long; and she seemed impatient for the bird to have
done. It then struck her that she also might find a nest, like her
sisters; and she examined the place whence the lark had sprung. Under a
thick tuft of grass, in a little hollow, she found a family of infant
larks huddled together, and pointed them out to her cousins.

The children came upon being called. They were damped in spirits. They
did not see how they were to find any nests, if the ants' nest would not
do; unless, indeed, Mr Hope would hold them up into the trees or hedges
to look; but they could not climb trees, Mr Hope knew. They were
somewhat further mortified by perceiving that they might have found a
nest by examining the ground, if they had happened to think of it.
Margaret begged they would not be distressed at not finding nests for
her; and Mr Ho